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Shallow-draft icebreaker of 22740M project laid at the Onega Shipyard for FSUE “Rosmorport”

Shallow-draft icebreaker of 22740M project laid at the Onega Shipyard for FSUE “Rosmorport”

On May 12, a solemn ceremony of laying the keel of a brand-new shallow-draft icebreaker of 22740M project was held at the Onega Shipyard in Petrozavodsk. This is the first icebreaker to be built at the Onega Shipyard.

The vessel of the 22740M project is currently the most powerful icebreaker in Russia with a shallow draft (3.2 m). It will have the propeller power of 6 MW, an Icebreaker6 ice class. For comparison, the shallow-draft icebreakers of 1105 project, built in Finland, which are currently operated by FSUE “Rosmorport”, have the propeller power of about 4.6 MW.

The shallow draft of the vessel will allow the icebreaker to operate in freezing seas with shallow depth (Caspian, Azov) and on inland waterways. The vessel will also be operated in the Baltic, White and other seas.

Mikhail Popov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Pospelov, Member of the Board of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation, Elissan Shandalovich, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, Dmitry Rodionov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Karelia for Economic Affairs, Vasily Strugov, Deputy General Director for Fleet of FSUE “Rosmorport”, Vladimir Maizus, Director of the Onega Shipyard, as well as other representatives of government bodies and industry organizations took part in the ceremony of laying the keel of the new shallow-draft icebreaker.

“Since 2015, our enterprises have been going hand in hand, contributing to the continuous development of the Russian shipbuilding industry,” Vasily Strugov stressed. “Thanks to the coordinated work of the Onega Shipyard shipbuilders, the fleet of FSUE “Rosmorport” has already been replenished with 19 vessels. Every time, working together, we successfully achieve our goals. Today we accept another challenge: a shallow-draft icebreaker for the Azov and Caspian basins.
This is a truly significant event in the history of the Russian maritime industry. Such vessels have not yet been built in the country. The main difficulty in the construction of this type of vessels is to maintain a minimum draft with an icebreaking capability of at least 1 m to operate in estuarine ports.”

The vessel will be used for providing icebreaking assistance during winter navigation, for pilotage of ship convoys, towing vessels and other floating structures in ice conditions and on clean water, as well as for solving other tasks of servicing the water area of ports and infrastructure. Vessels of this class can be operated at water temperatures from -2 to +30 degrees and air temperatures from -40 to +34 degrees Celsius.

The new shallow-draft icebreaker is planned to be produced using digital vessel construction support technologies developed at the Onega Shipyard. Already, as a pilot project for implementing a pre-production engineering system, created jointly with Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University and Business Technologies LLC, of the OSSRY digital platform, the creation of a digital structure of the icebreaker of 22740M project and the preparation of digital technological documentation for its construction has begun.

The vessel will feature high maneuverability and controllability, and it will have increased icebreaking capability due to the installation of a pneumatic hull washing system. The icebreaker will be equipped with equipment to assist vessels and perform rescue operations in ice conditions and on clean water, a helicopter pad for an unmanned aircraft complex using a helicopter-type aircraft for conducting ice reconnaissance and search and rescue operations. The vessel can be used to transport general cargo in twenty-foot containers on the aft working deck.

For comfort of the vessel’s crew, it is planned to provide rooms for various purposes: dining room, sauna, gym, laundry room and so on.

Main technical characteristics of the vessel:  

Class of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping:
КМIcebreaker6 [2] AUT1-ICS OMBO FF3WS EPP ECO 
Overall length:
81.4 m
Overall width:
17 m
Overall draft:
about 3.2 m
Fuel autonomy:
at least 10 days
Speed on clean water:
14 knots
Icebreaking capability:
movement in a solid ice field up to 1 m thick
Crew + special staff:
24 people